The Day After Tomorrow (RiffTrax Presents)
The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American climate fiction-disaster film co-written, directed, and produced by Roland Emmerich and starring Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm, Emmy Rossum, and Sela Ward. The film depicts fictional catastrophic climatic effects in a series of extreme weather events that usher in global cooling and leads to a new ice age. The film was made in Toronto and Montreal and is the highest-grossing Hollywood film to be made in Canada (if adjusted for inflation). RiffTrax Presents released their riff in September 2008. Plot Synopsis and Sample Spoilers Begin On an expedition in Antarctica, paleoclimatologist Jack Hall and his colleagues Frank and Jason are drilling for ice-core samples on the Larsen Ice Shelf for the NOAA when the shelf breaks off. Later, Jack presents his findings on global warming at a United Nations conference in New Delhi, but fails to convince diplomats or Vice President of the United States Raymond Becker. However, Professor Terry Rapson of the Hedland Climate Research Centre in Scotland believes in Jack's theories. Several buoys in the North Atlantic simultaneously show a massive drop in the ocean temperature, and Rapson concludes that melting polar ice has started to disrupt the North Atlantic current. He contacts Jack, whose paleoclimatological weather model shows how climate changes caused the first Ice Age. His team, along with NASA's meteorologist Janet Tokada, builds a forecast model. Across the world, violent weather causes mass destruction. U.S. President Blake authorizes the FAA to suspend all air traffic due to severe turbulence after learning numerous tornadoes destroyed downtown Los Angeles. At the International Space Station (ISS), three astronauts see a huge storm system spanning the northern hemisphere, delaying their return home. The situation worsens when the storm system develops into three massive hurricane-like superstorms with eyes holding −150 °F (−101 °C) temperatures that freezes anything it comes in contact with. The three cells are located over Northern Canada, Siberia, and Scotland. The weather becomes increasingly violent, causing traffic-jammed Manhattan streets to become flooded knee-deep. Jack's son Sam, visiting New York City as he is participating in an academic decathlon, calls his father promising to be on the next train home, but flooding closes the subways and Grand Central Terminal. As the storm worsens, a massive wave hits Manhattan. Sam and his friends seek shelter with a large group of people in the New York Public Library, but not before his friend and love interest Laura gets injured. President Blake orders the evacuation of the southern states of the United States, causing almost all of the refugees to head to Mexico. Jack and his team set out for Manhattan to find his son. Their truck crashes into a block of ice, just past Philadelphia so the group continues on snowshoes. Most of the group taking shelter in the library leaves when the water outside freezes, leaving just Sam and a few others. They burn books to stay alive and break into a vending machine for food. While journeying to New York, Frank falls through the glass roof of a snow-covered shopping mall. As Jason and Jack try to pull him up, the glass under them continues cracking and Frank sacrifices himself by cutting the rope. Laura appears to have a cold, so Sam comforts her and confesses his feelings for her. In Mexico, an urgent message reaches the refuge camp where most of the United States is taking refuge. Vice President Becker hears the urgent message from the Secretary of State that President Blake's motorcade was caught in the superstorm before it could make it to Mexico causing Vice President Becker to be sworn in as the new President. The next morning, the group determine that Laura has blood poisoning from the cut on her leg, so Sam and two others search for penicillin in a derelict Russian cargo-ship that drifted inland. The eye of the superstorm passes over the city and the three barely return to the library with the medicine in time. During the deep freeze, Jack and Jason (who fell unconscious) take shelter in an abandoned Wendy's restaurant as Jack turns on the burners at the highest temperature. Upon reaching Manhattan, Jack and Jason discover the library buried in snow, but find Sam's group alive. New York has turned into a polar, subarctic city, completely frozen by reaching −98 °F (−72 °C). They radio this to the government-in-exile in Mexico and President Becker orders helicopters flown into New York, finding more survivors. President Becker orders search-and-rescue teams to look for other survivors as he gives his first address to the nation. The movie concludes with the astronauts looking down at Earth from the Space Station, showing most of the northern hemisphere covered in ice and snow, with one of the astronauts stating "Look at that....Have you ever seen the air so clear?" Spoilers End Cast and Crew *Dennis Quaid as Professor Jack Hall *Jake Gyllenhaal as Sam Hall *Emmy Rossum as Laura Chapman *Ian Holm as Professor Terry Rapson *Sela Ward as Dr. Lucy Hall *Christopher Britton as Vorsteen *Arjay Smith as Brian Parks *Dash Mihok as Jason Evans *Jay O. Sanders as Frank Harris *Sasha Roiz as Parker *Austin Nichols as J.D. *Adrian Lester as Simon *Tamlyn Tomita as Janet Tokada *Glenn Plummer as Luther *Perry King as President Blake *Kenneth Welsh as Vice President Raymond Becker *Amy Sloan as Elsa *Sheila McCarthy as Judith *Nestor Serrano as Tom Gomez *Christian Tessier as Aaron Quotes Notes *This movie marks Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett's final appearance for the RiffTrax Presents brand. *This movie shares similar environmental themes with both Birdemic: Shock and Terror and (to a lesser extent) Avatar. See Also *Birdemic: Shock and Terror *Avatar *Star Trek: Phase II *Alien External Links *The Day After Tomorrow on RiffTrax *The Day After Tomorrow on Amazon Category:The Day After Tomorrow Category:RiffTrax Presents Category:RiffTrax Presents in 2008 Category:Kevin Murphy Category:Bill Corbett